College Focus: Cavalier Attitude

Defensive End Goofs In All The Right Places

MIAMI — Ask Virginia defensive end Mike Frederick about a crucial play in a big game and he'll probably tell a joke or comment on your shirt. Or maybe he'll joke about your shirt.

Life, even with its calamities, can only be taken so seriously. Frederick, the Cavaliers' best defensive player and a star on the rise, is a perfectionist on the field. Off it, he freely admits to being a big goofball.

Quirky fits. Or you can just call Frederick a big - 6-foot-6 and 265 pounds - goofball. Consider the following Frederickisms:

* On seeing Santa Claus a couple of weeks ago: ``I was going a little too fast around this turn, and there was this blue van. I looked up, and Santa was in it. The Santa. Why he was riding in a blue van - you'd figure he'd ride in a red and green van.''

* On Arkansas' season-ending victory against Louisiana State, which sent Virginia to Saturday's Carquest Bowl: ``I went to get an Arkansas hat. They didn't have one, so I got LSU. I figured they helped us as much as Arkansas did.''

* On teammate Tom Burns: ``Burns is the kind of guy who would trip himself just so other people will look at him. He doesn't drink at all, so he's got some built-up tensions in there.''

* On his image of being a goofball: ``I'm pretty proud of that, actually. It's pretty hard to earn the name `Goofball.' That's good stuff.''

Get the picture? Your basic 21-year-old who refuses to worry about too many things. Every bit as care-free as the Hawaiian shirts he wears with plaid pants.

Or so that's how folks from the outside see him.

``I won't say it's all a front,'' said defensive tackle Ryan Kuehl, one of Frederick's best friends and an ex-roommate. ``He's pretty wacky, but he gets serious a lot, too. We're both in the business school, and he's pretty serious about that.

``Really, I don't think he wants to let everybody see that side of him. You guys don't get to see it because he's always goofing around with you. But I'll tell you about it. When you're close to someone, you see all sides of them.''

One thing Frederick is dead-serious about is football. Believe it or not, his coaches say he has been too serious. Too critical of himself.

Frederick had good redshirt freshman and sophomore seasons, but was mostly known as Virginia's other defensive end. All-American Chris Slade had a marvelous career at Virginia, sacking everything that moved in his four years there, and ended up being the 31st player picked in the 1993 NFL draft. But Frederick actually led the defense in number of plays.

This season, Frederick stepped out of Slade's huge shadow. But he demanded too much of himself, Petchel and defensive coordinator Rick Lantz say. He wanted to be Slade, but he's not that type of defensive end.

After six weeks, Frederick was having a solid season, even if he was unhappy with it. He was pressing himself. He was trying to be something he was not.

``I went in and met with Lantz about halfway through the year, and he said, `It's about time you quit analyzing yourself and go out and enjoy this game. You can only play this game for so long, why don't you have fun with it?' ''

A fantastic irony: Frederick being told to relax. Sort of like Rush Limbaugh being told to become more conservative.

But here was Lantz's point: While Frederick was doing well, he could do better and make some big plays if he'd only relax. And in the second half of the regular season, a relaxed Frederick stepped up a level.

``I'd say I got where I wanted to be in the second half of the season,'' said Frederick, who enters Saturday's game against Boston College with 10 1/2 sacks. ``Everything started happening after that. The first four or five games, I was just pushing.

``We were winning games, and that's even worse. I couldn't even enjoy the wins, I was saying, `What can I do better?' This is a great game, and it's something you have got to enjoy if you're going to be any good at it.''

Two plays against Wake Forest on Nov. 6 stand out. Early in the fourth quarter with Virginia leading 14-9, the Demon Deacons had moved to the Cavaliers' 45-yard line. On second-and-13, Wake tried a reverse to wideout Roger Pettus. Frederick read it perfectly and stopped Pettus for an 8-yard loss.

On the next play, a third-and-21, Frederick blew past his blocker - who decided for some reason not to block him - and sacked Wake quarterback Jim Kemp for an 8-yard loss. The Demon Deacons suddenly faced a fourth-and-29 from their own 39, and never sniffed the end zone again.